French offshore wind gets busy as installation window opens
Ocean Winds wants to help France turn 2025 into a milestone year for offshore wind
Two French offshore wind projects — both led by EDP and Engie joint venture Ocean Winds — have just passed key milestones as the summer installation period window gets under way.
The Madrid-based developer this week installed the first of 61 wind turbines on the Iles d’Yeu et de Noirmoutier (EMYN) offshore wind farm, scheduled to be fully operational by the end of 2025.
The 8MW-rated Siemens Gamesa turbines will all be installed off the coast of western France's Vendee department between May and September 2025.
Ocean Winds has touted the EMYN as a flagship for developing and building with high local content, including blades and nacelles manufactured in Le Havre, France.
“A remarkable feature of EMYN is its strong European and French industrial footprint for the construction phase: 95% of the project’s Tier 1 suppliers are European, with over 50% sourced in France," said Marc Hirt, Ocean Winds’ country manager for France.
France's floating vanguard
Also this week, the first of three 2,000-tonne floating substructures for the 30MW Les Eoliennes Flottantes de Gulf of Lion (EFGL) project was towed to Port-La Nouvelle, in southern France, where final turbine integration will take place.
The installation campaign will begin "early summer" and commercial operation is set for the end of the year, according to Ocean Winds.
EFGL features a third-generation WindFloat semisubmersible technology supplied by Principle Power, and repeats a technology partnership between that company and Ocean Winds on the 25MW WindFloat Atlantic (WFA) pilot project in Portugal.
Ocean Winds is also in the early stage of development of the 250MW Eoliennes Flottantes d’Occitanie (EFLO) floating wind project, to be located in the Gulf of Lion, in the Mediterranean.
EFLO will deploy up to 19 floaters, also supplied by Principle Power.
The WFA partners last week celebrated five years of operations and said total output of 345 GWh in Portugal had "exceeded energy production estimates" during that time, without providing more detail on benchmarking.
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